While the Butlers are building a natural
gas rig for a signal torch, the village is staked out by
marauding thieves.

Didja Know?

The writers of each TV episode are not specifically revealed,
but the end credits of every episode listed the series writers
as: Peter Dixon, Peter Germano, James Henderson, Ernie Kahn, Ben
Masselink, Dick Robbins, Henry Sharp, and Jerry Thomas.

Didja Notice?

At the beginning of the episode,
rival cavemen called Tamors are seen to ride
camels, even though no true camels
exist in the wild in South America
where the Valley of the Dinosaurs is
located. The camels seen here appear
to be much larger than the modern
dromedaries, indicating it may be
one of the extinct, giant,
prehistoric species (though the
giant species of camel discovered
thus far were from the Arctic, not a
tropical region).

At 2:36 on the DVD, Digger is seen chasing a small dinosaur that is
probably either a Compsognathus or Procompsognathus.
Notice also that Digger is wearing a flower wreath around his neck,
no doubt placed on him as part of the Feast of Plenty celebration.

In this episode, the Butlers have built a gas drilling rig in the
hopes of striking natural gas from which they can light a gigantic
torch as a signal to aircraft that can be spotted up to a thousand
miles away.

The baby ceratopsian dinosaur that follows Katie after she feeds it
is probably intended to be a Styracosaurus. She apparently
names it Funnyface.

Describing the approach of the Tamors, Greg calls them "Genghis Khan
and his troops".
"Genghis Khan" (Great Emperor) was the title given to Temujin, the
son of a 12th Century leader of the Mongols, who went on to found
the Mongol Empire by uniting many of the nomadic tribes of the
region and building a powerful army from them.

Tana also refers to the Tamors as "the camel people".

In getting Funnyface to turn the
drill of the gas rig, the Butlers
rig him to the turntable and tie a
branch to his back which dangles a
bunch of bananas in front of him to
make him move forward to get it. The
presence of bananas would suggest
that either outside visitors have
been into the valley in the past or
valley residents left and came back
with bananas or seeds. Bananas are
not native to the Americas and were
only introduced to Central and South
America by Portuguese colonists in
the 15th Century.

Turns out there is a plentiful supply of diamonds in the Valley of
the Dinosaurs! The cave dwellers call them cacara stones and the
Butlers put a number of them on the end of their gas rig drill bit
to cut through the sandstone below ground. I would presume they also
horde a sackful somewhere to take back with them when they finally
discover a way out of the valley!

When Funnyface's mother keeps pursuing Katie and Lok, Katie asks if
she ever gives up and Lok responds, "She hangs on like the turtle
who bites a stick." The common snapping turtle's habitat does not
extend south farther than the southern U.S., so he may be referring
to the giant turtle seen in
"Pteranodon",
which Gara is able to guide by getting it to clamp its jaws
down on a giant horn she carries.

When the Tamors ride in to attack the cave dwellers village, Greg
says it looks like the Charge of the Light Brigade. The
Charge of the Light Brigade was a charge of British light cavalry
against Russian forces during the October 1854 Battle of Balaclava
of the Crimean War (1853-1856).

Camlok states that his people feed guava beans only to camels. The
term "guava bean" is one occasionally used in reference to winter
melons and has nothing to be with beans. The guava is another,
unrelated, fruit plant, so how the "guava bean" appellation came
about I have no idea and have been unable to find its origin.

Gara says the Tamors and the cave dwellers should be friends and
that the kongas and cave bears are their enemies. The term "konga"
was introduced in "What Goes Up" as the cave dwellers'
word for a Tyrannosaurus rex.